Mortgages for Yacht Professionals

Yes. Your seafarer’s employment agreement (SEA) under the Maritime Labour Convention is the qualifying document. You document U.S. residency via driver license, voter registration, U.S. bank account, and a U.S. mailing address. Income qualification runs through our Non-QM bank-statement program in most cases, since W-2s issued by foreign-flag employers do not flow to U.S. payroll systems the way agency lenders expect.

Yes, with documentation. We need (1) the captain’s tip-distribution log or management-company tip statement, (2) deposit history showing tips landing in your account, and (3) prior-year tax filings (1040 Line 8a) showing tips reported. Two years of consistent tip income qualifies under standard Fannie Mae variable-income guidelines; one year requires a Non-QM program.

Rotation is treated as continuous employment, not seasonal. We document it with (1) a current rotation-pay attestation letter from your management company stating the rotation pattern and full-time status, (2) the past 12 or 24 months of pay history showing the rotation is established, and (3) the SEA explicitly noting rotational terms. Under the Fannie Mae Selling Guide’s variable-income provisions, this qualifies as continuous income.

The cleanest path is two years of 1040s plus the SEA and a current pay-rate letter from the management company. If your tax filings under-tell your income (because of offshore residency optimization or because you only recently moved up to a larger boat), the bank-statement program substitutes 12 or 24 months of personal deposits as the income basis.

Standard agency programs require a two-year self-employment history. If you have one year of 1099 income plus prior W-2 yacht-industry employment (typical path: crew first, surveyor second), some lenders count the W-2 history as occupational continuity. If neither path fits, our bank-statement program qualifies on deposits alone, no business-tax-return requirement.

Florida is the dominant U.S. base for yacht professionals; Broward County’s marine industry alone supports 120,000+ jobs and $9.6B in annual output. We are based in Fort Lauderdale and can close in 30 days on a Florida purchase. Florida has no state income tax, which is a structural advantage for crew filing as Florida residents.

If you qualify under the bank-statement program, no — we average deposits over 12 or 24 months, which absorbs seasonal variance. If you qualify under an agency program with W-2 income from a year-round position, the off-season is irrelevant. The risk is when a generalist lender forces an agency program onto crew with seasonal pay; that’s a wrong-door problem, not a real income problem.

With two years of history, yes, under both Fannie Mae and Non-QM programs. With one year of history, only under Non-QM. We document them with the management company’s bonus letter and the W-2 or 1099 line item showing payment. They cannot be the sole basis of qualification, but they meaningfully boost the income figure.

Under Fannie Mae Method 3 (future-pay), we can qualify you on the new purser rate as soon as you have a written offer letter or signed SEA at the new pay grade, even if the new rate has not yet hit your pay history. This is the same path airline first officers use after a Captain upgrade. It requires the new rate to be the same employer or industry; a complete career switch resets the clock.

Conventional Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (when income docs flow cleanly), Non-QM bank-statement (the most common path for foreign-flag crew), Non-QM 1099-only (for surveyors and freelancers), Asset-Depletion (for senior captains with portfolio assets but limited recent income), and Jumbo programs (for purchase price over $806,500 in most Florida counties, $1,000,000 in select markets). We pick the program after we read your docs, not before.